Modern Spartan Cleaners
A couple weeks ago I received some cleaning and lubrication products to try out from Modern Spartan System. There are so many products on the market for cleaning firearms and lubrication. I agreed to check this one out because of the claims they made. I spoke with one of the sales reps. Who kindly sent me all of the specs for the products and talked to me about each one. I have now for 2 weeks been using these products in my everyday work. It has taken me a little while but now I feel I have enough information to give you a review of the products. I am going to divide them up into two separate posts as I did a lot of tests with them. I told the sales rep that I would give him an honest, pulling no punches, review. Please keep in mind I work on guns for a living. When I clean a gun I do so thoroughly and timely. Over the years I have learned to get them in and out. But do a quality job. The first two products I tried were the cleaners. One is the Carbon and Lead Destroyer. I started out with the simple smell test, yes I smelled the cleaner. If a cleaner has a potent or annoying smell you probably won’t use it. This product caught me off guard. It smelled of Ammonia, more distinctly it really smelled like Windex. The cleaner is clear so no damaging color stains if you spill it on the carpet or your wife's favorite piece of furniture. On these simple but important things, I would have to say it’s an excellent product for cleaning guns for the end user. The first test was on a customer gun. A 1911 that the customer had put about 2500 rounds through in a training class. This gun was filthy. This product comes in a squirt bottle, so I was not able to just spray the gun down, However pouring some on the gun and per the instructions, waiting a couple of minutes for it to soak in, I found that it cleaned well.There was very little residue left where the carbon had caked on a little bit. The carbon and lead destroyer did a good job on that firearm. Some spots, of course, took a little more to get them clean but all in all, it worked well. The second test was on an older Smith and Wesson model 39-2 chromed. This gun had a build up of grease and baked on oils. With this one, I tried to do a quick clean of the residue. The results of this attempt were less than acceptable. Many times I clean a gun with the same residue using a CLP and it comes right off. It took several applications and finally I had to let it sit on the gun for a few min before it would do anything. I did a comparison on other parts of the gun with Break Free CLP and the oil and grease came right off with one application. Could that have been the degree of baked on grime? Yes, it could have been, However, for me, I need quick and good? I can not spend tons of time on cleaning a gun, A cleaner should be able to remove grime with no hesitation.
The next test was on a Mosin Nagant Rifle, The customer said he had just purchased the gun and it had tons of dirt, carbon and even some cosmoline still in it. The prior owner had obviously shot corrosive ammunition through it and had let it sit. Note, very rarely can I get all of the corrosion out of a barrel like that. I decided to let this one sit a little while so I plugged the barrel and poured enough cleaner down it to fill the barrel. I then let it sit for 10 min. I poured the cleaner into a clear jar just to see what it had grabbed. The cleaner came out a little blackened but not with a bunch of residues. I then used a brush and scrubbed the barrel out. Following that, I ran a couple of patches through it. They all came out black. I decided to try the Copper Destroyer by doing the same procedure. When I got to the patches they again came out completely black. I ended up putting the gun in a sonic cleaner. Following the sonic cleaner, I was able to get a majority of the build up out however not completely. In this a case I may or may not be able to get all of the build up out. This cleaner does seem to be fairly strong, however, the claims that it is a product with “shock and Awe” power and that the strongest chemical solvents can’t keep up with it, well, I just don’t see it with this firearm. Test 2 with the Copper Destroyer, one of our local LEO’s dropped off his AR-15 for cleaning, he had just finished a 2000 round training class, The gun was beyond dirty, I used a couple of patches with the Copper Destroyer just to get it in the barrel. I let it sit for a few minutes and then ran 2 dry patches through the barrel on a jag. The barrel came clean quickly. A few more patches and I had no residue. Basic cleaning on a heavily fired gun it did well. Test 3 with the Copper Destroyer was a gun a customer brought in that had also been shot heavily in competition. I used the same test as the LEO gun. The barrel was clear within 5 patches after the initial soaking. Overall opinion, The cleaners are good if you have time to let them sit on the firearm. Normally when I am cleaning guns I want a quick response of the cleaning solvent. However, overall I would not have a problem using this product to clean firearms. If I was a firearms owner. However, as a gunsmith, I am more than that and time is money. I think they need to make this cleaner a little stronger. Results were good except for the badly corroded firearm. I would suggest these cleaners to others that do not use them professionally. There you have it, Straight from the gunsmith’s mouth
